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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Jerry Rao @ SJMSOM

Jaithirth Rao,also
known asJerry Rao, is anIndianbusinessman and former CEO of the
software companyMphasiS.

Rao was born inBangaloreand is an alumnus of LoyolaCollege
inChennai,
Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and the University of Chicago.
In a banking career of over 20 years, he served with Citi and its parent
Citicorp in various capacities in Asia, Europe, South America, and North America. In 1998 he started Mphasis Corporation, a
software company based in California, which subsequently
merged with BFL Software in 2000 to form Mphasis-BFL with twin headquarters in Santa Monica, California,
and Bangalore, India.

Rao is actively involved with the Confederation of Indian
Industry and with the Government of India’s SoftwareTechnologyPark initiatives, and has
been Chairman of India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies
–NASSCOM.
Mr. Rao was named the Ernst & Young 'Entrepreneur of the Year 2004' for the
New York
region. His many areas of interest include technology strategy, customer
relationship management (CRM), financial services, and e-commerce – a subject
on which he has testified before the US Congress. A published poet, he is
reportedly working on a second book of poems and a historical novel set in the
16th Century

He was present at SJMSOM, IIT Bombay on 20th
March as a visiting faculty to talk about emerging markets and international
business. He started off with the reasons for India’s jump from an agricultural
economy to a services economy, bypassing the industrial stage. He emphasized
that no clear reason emerges and it was a combination of various factors like
an over educated work force, the Hindu growth rate and a widespread knowledge
of the English language. He illustrated, with the example of the textile
industry, how control and regulation suppresses growth and innovation.

He then moved on to the phenomenal success and growth of the
IT industry. He attributed it to a complete lack of sales duties, 100% FDI and
the lowest regulations of any industry. With the introduction of the concept of
disruptive innovation, he explained how Indian IT companies reached global
standards by competing on a global level without any protection.

He ended his talk with a discussion on the problems that are
faced by the IT industry such as a lack of innovation. According to him,
product innovation will only happen when we are close to the market although
the ecosystem (angel investors, venture capitalists, low entry and exit
barriers etc.) already exists.